Category Archives: Sunday Morning Sidewalk

Sunday Morning Sidewalk #53

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Death By Lightning

“Destiny of the Republic”

I have been simultaneously looking forward to and dreading the fourth and final episode of the Netflix mini-series, Death by Lightning. Looking forward to because I have been thoroughly enthralled by this historical drama about James Garfield and dreading it because I have grown to admire and love the character of James Garfield and I knew what his fate held.

The Sunday Morning Sidewalk came this morning and I watched the final episode.

It was so powerful.

It made me wish for a man like James Garfield who could step up and face the corruption of the current political setting. What I wouldn’t give for an honest man, one who did not play the games, like James Garfield. Seeing how his presence and kindness transformed Chester A. Arthur was amazing.

But, it was not just James Garfield who changed Arthur. He had help from a force of nature that we got to witness in this episode: Crete Garfield. The First Lady spent the episode bringing forth the vengeance.

Betty Gilpin got her moments in this episode and she was tremendous.

There were no shortage of villains in this episode. Starting off with Charles Guiteau, who wound up shooting the president in the back. The joy he showed at his actions, despite how demented he was, was obscene. I took a lot of satisfaction in the confrontation with Crete and Guiteau’s eventual hanging. The moment just before he is hanged where he finally realized what was going to happen was best. I also found a strange satisfaction in seeing his brain removed from his dead body for research at the end.

Another villain in the episode was Roscoe Conkling. He was horrendous in his response to the shooting of Garfield. His machinations being turned back on him was great, and seeing how Chester Arthur finally stood up to him.

Then, there was Doctor Bliss. The bullet was not what eventually killed Garfield. He was killed by infection brought on because Bliss did not sterilize his instruments when he was probing for the bullet. The arrogance of this doctor came through clearly in this episode.

This was one of the most compelling four episode mini series I have seen in a long time. Great performances and amazing true stories highlighted the show. I did not expect to love this as much as I did. If you have time, binge this series on Netflix. You will not be disappointed.

Next week, the Sunday Morning Sidewalk switches to another Netflix mini-series: three episodes of a show called Agatha Christie’s Seven Dials. I can only hope that it is as excellent as Death By Lightning.

Sunday Morning Sidewalk #52

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Death By Lightning

“Casus Belli”

Things are really picking up in the world of politics in 1880.

With James Garfield now elected president, he is finding the politics within in own party to be troubling. Conkling was flexing his power with Garfield’s cabinet picks, forcing Garfield to do something drastic.

Chester Arthur was, at one point, seemingly faltering, listening to Garfield’s arguments, but Garfield’s appointment of a collector, which was Arthur’s position, changed that. It led to an all-out war with Conkling.

Another one who is turning against Garfield is Charles Guiteau, who felt betrayed by Garfield, despite the fact that Garfield does not remember him at all. The mental illness being displayed by Guiteau is apparent. His purchase of the gun at the end of the episode with his “practice” was a suspenseful moment. His loss of his father and rejection of his delusion was impacted by a confrontation with Blaine. He spent this entire hour having things pile up against him. Next week’s episode should be fireworks.

Garfield’s wife also took ill, making thing rough for the President. The show told us through Garfield’s own words that he was rejecting security and said that assassination was unavoidable. This foreshadowed what is to come.

Great performances in this show. I thought Matthew Macfadyen was especially strong this week with his further decent into madness and eventual fatal thoughts.

Sunday Morning Sidewalk #51

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Death By Lightning

“Party Faithful”

After the second of four episodes, James Garfield has been elected President of the United States.

The series has been flying at a pace that has been both breakneck and thrilling. Today’s politics are in no way like this. It is a welcome pace.

The first part of the episode focuses on Chester A. Arthur being lined up as the vice-president candidate and we get a good look at the personality and troubles of the man. Great performance from Nick Offerman during this episode.

Will-be assassin Charles Guiteau continued to show his delusional state as he wormed his way into the graces of Chester Arthur. Arthur was able to rid Guiteau of the people chasing him because of his theft of money from his sister and it only elevated Guiteau’s delusions all the more.

Garfield is being shown as a true honest man and a man who believed in what was right. They showed him meeting with a contingent of black leaders, swearing that their rights was the most important policy facing the country. Garfield preferred to campaign from his front porch.

The show also showed us how news spread differently at this time when Garfield’s wife, Crete, only found out about the nomination when the reporters began showing up on her front lawn. News did not fly across the planet like it does today.

The second episode of Death By Lightning is another winner and I am excited to see where this historical drama goes next.

Sunday Morning Sidewalk #50

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Death By Lightning

“The Man from Ohio”

I originally chose “Death By Lightning, the mini series from Netflix, as the next show for the Sunday Morning Sidewalk because it had four episodes and I was not yet ready to commit to one of the longer shows on my list. After watching the first episode of the series, I made an excellent choice.

I was thoroughly compelled by the show. I knew little of James Garfield, outside that he was President of the United States. The way this show set up the amazing, true story was simply brilliant.

In sense, setting Garfield and his would be assassin Charles Guiteau in the same world was a remarkable feat of storytelling, which immediately reminded me of Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr from Hamilton.

There was something so hopeful about the way Garfield received the nomination from the Republican Party in 1880. In a world of political discourse that we exist in today, I can not ever see such a thing happen and, the fact that it had happened, was stunning.

The political in-fighting inside the convention was fascinating. Garfield, who did not look for the nomination, received the ground swell among the delegates. Watching it build through the convention brought me a level of aspiration for the process.

Meanwhile, Charles Guiteau was being introduced to us as a manipulator and, perhaps, a mentally ill individual. What his plans are moving forward after robbing his loving sister once again, is compelling.

Great acting in the show so far as Michael Shannon and Matthew Macfadyen lead this talented ensemble. There was also several other amazing actors in the cast including Nic Offerman, Bradley Whitford, Betty Gilpin, Shea Whigham, Alistair Petrie, Laura Marcus, and Paula Malcomson.

I am hooked after this first episode and I am excited to see the remaining three episodes of this mini series from Netflix.

Sunday Morning Sidewalk #49

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“Part 2”

Interestingly, Billy Joel: And So It Goes Part 1 ended with a cliffhanger of sorts. Billy Joel had just had a motorcycle wreck and the doc made us think this was a huge event to Billy Joel.

Then, the second part of the doc started and the motorcycle accident was brushed aside with a mention about how his hand did not bend like it used to. That was it.

Even with that little sideline, I thought I enjoyed Part Two more than I did Part One. There were more about this that I did not know. There were more personal information than just details about the songs and why he wrote it.

The doc interviewed Christie Brinkley, famously Joel’s second wife, who was a huge inspiration with a lot of the hits of the 1980s. Hearing about the marriage and eventual divorce was very interesting.

It also spoke about the time when Billy was not active. There was a large stretch of time when he wasn’t making anything new and hearing about that time was fascinating.

The doc has a ton of individuals speaking about Billy Joel. We saw Paul McCartney, John Mellencamp, Bruce Springsteen, Pink, Garth Brooks, Nas, and Jackson Browne.

This was a really strong doc, even if it was too long. It was comprehensive and covered most of his biggest hits. This was amazing.

Sunday Morning Sidewalk #48

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This week for the Sunday Morning Sidewalk, we start a two episode documentary on HBO Max about Billy Joel called Billy Joel: And So It Goes. This is truly a first for the Sunday Morning Sidewalk because the first episode is almost 2 and a half hours long. Next week’s is about the same. We have never had an episode for the Sunday Morning Sidewalk as long as this was.

Honestly, I love Billy Joel, but, when the show first came out on HBO Max, the runtime of the documentary was something that put me off. However, the timing of this worked out perfectly as The Haunting of Hill House ended last week, and the next series would start over Christmas break from school. I have two weeks off from teaching and so anything that I did not get to watch on a Sunday because of the length of the documentary could easily be watched during the week. It was perfect.

I watched Part 1 today, and the doc was fascinating. It reveled a ton of details that I was unaware of pertaining to Billy Joel. The early career depression that led him to attempt suicide a couple of times was truly unexpected.

Many rock documentaries do not feature some of the worst times of the performer. They may gloss over things that they do not want to explore. I did not get that feeling about Billy Joel: And So It Goes. The cliché phrase “warts and all” seems to fit as the first episode talked about Billy’s drinking, his depression and suicide attempts, his attitude toward the record companies, just to mention a few. All of this came together to show us a cool portrait of this musician.

There were plenty of talking heads in the film including comments form Bruce Springsteen, Paul McCartney, John Mellencamp, as well as people closer to Billy. His wife/manager Elizabeth Weber was an essential character in the narrative of Billy Joel’s early successes, and she appeared through the entire episode. Of course, we also heard directly from Billy Joel in multiple settings and time periods.

The first episode ended just after the motorcycle accident that Billy survived and the split of his marriage with Elizabeth.

We will finish episode 2 next Sunday.

Sunday Morning Sidewalk #47

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“Silence Lay Steadily”

The latest Sunday Morning Sidewalk show wrapped up this morning with the finale of The Haunting of Hill House on Netflix.

Mike Flanigan’s 10-episode horror series was a great series with some complex ideas and original storytelling. The performances of the actors in the show were really great. Admittedly, I had some trouble over the first several episodes figuring out who was who, especially with the flashbacks being so prevalent. However, once that became clearer, the show really took off.

The finale was a beautiful end to the story, which was quite unexpected. There was healing and love through the Crain children and reunions of spirits within Hill House.

I had a definite vibe between Hill House in this series and Murder House from the first season of American Horror Story. In the end, Hill House had a less evil feel than Murder House, or at any time in the previous episodes of this series.

The episode focused around the Red Room and what it truly was… which seemed to be a chameleon type room, being whatever the person needed it to be. That was an intriguing concept.

The ending did reconstruct the idea around Hill House. I did not find it as evil of a location as the Crain children had made it seem. It just felt like a resting place for many ghosts.

Overall, I found this to be a very engaging and enjoyable show, with a few gaps and holes that didn’t keep me from enjoying it.

Next week, the next Sunday Morning Sidewalk will head over to HBO Max for a two-episode documentary on Bill Joel, called Billy Joel: And So it Goes. These two episodes will be the longest single episodes we have done in the Sunday Morning Sidewalk, but it feels like a good one to end 2025 with.

Sunday Morning Sidewalk #46

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“Screaming Meemies”

I am not sure I was ready for that.

This episode, entitled “Screaming Meemies,” which was a slang term meaning a “heightened sense of panic or anxiety,” showed us the events of the night when Hugh took the kids and left the Hill House in the middle of the night. It was all from the perspective of Olivia, whose entire life had seemingly become a dream that she could not awake from.

I had not expected for the house to have driven her as mad as it did that she would try to awaken the twins (and Luke’s not-so-imaginary friend, Abigail) by having a middle of the night, surprise tea party, with tea laced with rat poison.

Poor little Abigail saved the day, in a sense, by sipping on her poisoned tea before the twins could, and she promptly died.

Much of this had been influenced by the ghost known as Poppy Hill, who showed up at the end of episode 7 to grab adult Luke when he tried to burn the house down. This Poppy was a nasty ghost who was planting the seeds of evil in the mind of the mentally ill Olivia, leading to this act of horror.

With this bit, in the penultimate episode no less, the last thing we need to discover from the past flashbacks, would be what happened when Hugh went back to the Hill House after he dropped his kids off at the motel. I am sure that will be included in the 70+ minute finale in episode 10.

We got to see the truth behind several of the odd things we had seen previously from Olivia, like the screwdriver she held at Hugh’s neck or breaking the mirror on the vanity that Steven had fixed up for her. Everything fit in nicely as we see the descent of Olivia into this house induced madness. We also see her “suicide”, aided by the push of Poppy Hill.

I expect that next week’s big finale will deliver big time, as this show has been truly firing on all cylinders the last four-five episodes.

Sunday Morning Sidewalk #45

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“Witness Marks”

May have been the scariest jump scare I have ever seen.

I was so engaged with the angry conversation going on between Theo and Shirley that I never once even considered that there would be something scary happen.

And when the ghostly figure of Nell screeched from the back seat, I literally screamed out. That rarely happened. The show got me good.

Prior to that, I was thinking what a group of douchebags these Crain kids were. I would go as far as to say that I really have grown to dislike both Steven and Shirley and their obnoxiousness.

I knew immediately that Luke was heading to the house. I am not sure why no one else thought of that right away, especially considering the weirdness that had been going on around the funeral parlor (last episode).

The whole knocking and doorbell ringing at that funeral parlor was creepy too, and it only served to make me dislike Shirley more. Dismissing this impossibility as kids playing pranks is just so short sighted that she was more embracing her own anger and resentments than able to see what was going on.

Then, the monologue from Theo after the jump scare was heartbreaking. The whole “I felt nothing” stuff was tough to listen to and, seemingly, finally got through the exterior of her sister.

By the way, last week’s episode had Hugh’s flashback heading through the Red Door, but nothing was mentioned or shown about that this week. That did not upset me as what we got was so excellent. Our flashback was Steven fixing up an old vanity for his mom. This was an important memory for Steven because it was proof for him about his mother’s madness, instead of one more haunted item in the Hill House.

Luke at the Hill House failing to light it on fire, only to be confronted by a vision of his mother in a red dress at the top of the stairs and the arrival of Rotten Polly, the owner of the said vanity.

There are two more episodes remaining and this series is absolutely hitting its stride. After this episode ended, which was the shortest run time of the series, I really wanted more.

Sunday Morning Sidewalk #44

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“Eulogy”

More creepy things are going on with the Crain family as they have the funeral for Nell, and we spend a focused episode on Hugh.

Hugh has a major secret about what happened on the night when Olivia died, and we are slowly coming around to the answer to it. Of course, there are just three episodes remaining so those answers should be coming soon.

Hugh is shown being questioned by the sheriff and he was not overly forthcoming. We know that something weird happened that night that he felt the need to protect his kids from, but this does not shine any light on that.

We do learn for sure that Hugh has been talking to Olivia, as we suspected last week. He told Luke, who saw the Bent-Neck Lady and a scary Olivia at the funeral, that he had been talking to Olivia since the death, and that it was a coping mechanism that had been given an okay by his therapist. It feels like there is more to that than what he said.

Some of the scenes involving the dead and decaying corpse of Olivia, whether it be in Nell’s grave, grabbing Luke’s arm, or crawling along the floor in front of Hugh and Theo, are truly frightening and well done. The story of what happened on that night has been drawn out slowly over the first 7 episodes and I expect big things over the final three.

Sunday Morning Sidewalk #43

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“Two Storms”

I am going to be perfectly honest. I had heard so many amazing things about The Haunting of Hill House before I started it during the Sunday Morning Sidewalk, and it has been disappointing. Yes, I have enjoyed the show so far, but it was not the epic that I was expecting.

Then, there was episode six, “Two Storms.”

Now I see what everyone else was talking about.

What an episode. This one blew all of the previous episodes away. It had tension, it had character reveals, it had story beats and it had some of the best direction/shots of the show.

There were multiple, long one-shots of scenes as the camera follows the grieving Crain family around the funeral parlor. Technically, this is a master class of direction from series runner Mike Flanagan. Whenever the one-shot would end, the transitions were spectacular, and we would be back into another oner. The design of the plan for each shot is unbelievable and executed perfectly.

The surviving Crain kids and their father finally are all together in the present day as a thunderstorm raged outside the funeral parlor. The show gave us a flashback to another storm that occurred with the Crain family while they lived at Hill House and they paralleled the two storms with a narratively striking purpose. We got to see some major effects that the house had on both Nell and Olivia. Nell’s disappearance and Olivia’s encounter with the spirits were chilling.

Chilling is a good way to describe many of the moments from this episode, including the appearance of the bent-neck woman at the family visitation. There was no jump scares here. The scenes transcended jump scares. They were done so spectacularly that you couldn’t help but be disquieted.

The character development was wonderful too, as secrets came out. The alcohol flowed freely (which I thought was incredibly selfish by every kid, considering Luke was there, clean and sober, watching his siblings all slapping back vodka) and the tongues were sharp. Fueled by their loss and grief, the kids and Hugh said some dramatically hurtful things to each other as truth came to the surface. Hugh seemed to be talking to himself, convincing Steven about the mental illness he believed ran in his family, but I believe it was clear that he was talking to Olivia’s spirit.

The concept of Nell and Olivia NOT having killed themselves, and, instead, being killed by the house came up and it triggered the resentment of the others for Steven’s book. They shared moments that we had seen over the first five episodes in the kids individual focused episodes that showed how much these siblings were not as close as they may have thought.

This episode elevated the entire series to a new level, one that makes me understand the fervor over this show that had seemed good, but not exceptional before this. I can’t wait to see where the show goes from here.

Sunday Morning Sidewalk #42

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“The Bent-Neck Lady”

This week’s focus is on Nell and the visions she would have seeing the Bent-Neck Lady.

In what I thought was a fun bit of casting, Nell was seeing a therapist named Dr. Montague and he was played by Russ Tamblyn. What makes that fun was that Russ Tamblyn played Dr. Lawrence Jacoby on Twin Peaks. Jacoby was a quirky and oddball psychiatrist involved with Laura Palmer, a tragic death of a young woman. Very much like the death of Nell in The Haunting of Hill House.

The episode saw the events that lead up to Nell returning to Hill House the night that she died. It made sense with the way the last episode ended with Luke blurting out that Nell did not kill herself.

The last part of Nell’s life was filled with torment. I can’t imagine what sleep paralysis would be like. It sounded horrific and made things all the worse as we see how she suffered during it. Of course, the show implied that it was not just a simple case of sleep paralysis and that it had to do with the visions that she would see.

We see how Nell and her husband Arthur met and his tragic death. Those years for Nell seemed to be so wonderful that seeing him drop dead from the aneurism was tough.

That was not the toughest scene of the episode though.

The ending, where we see the identity of the Bent-Neck Lady revealed as Nell’s future self after she hanged herself from the spiral staircase on the night she returned to Hill House, was unbelievably anguish-filled. Watching Nell see all of these moments of her life, but as the bent-neck lady was something that I did not expect.

Now that we have seen Nell’s tragic final day at Hill House, one wonders where the show goes from here. There are still plenty of feelings of guilt and grief to deal with as this entire family does not seem to deal with what happened to them at hill House.

We flash back to the kids era and we see their father bringing them to a hotel and then going back “for mom” he tells them. That night is clearly something that we need to see more of moving forward.

How will everyone continue to deal with the loss of Nell? Luke, in particular, is a character that I am intrigued to see moving ahead. I want to see more of their father too, as he played some major role that we have yet to see.

This show has picked up big time. Last week’s episode was my favorite of the series so far… that is until this week. I think this was a near perfect horror episode with an amazing payoff to a mystery that we have been wondering, while still leaving plenty of questions to be answered.

Sunday Morning Sidewalk #41

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“The Twin Thing”

This week is Luke’s episode.

That is what I figured since each episode so far has focused on one of the Crain children. I did not know that Luke and Nellie were actually twins.

Luke has been in the background a lot so far. We knew about him being in recovery for an addiction and stealing from his siblings, but that is about it.

I have to say, this was the first time I thought of Steve as a dick. But watching him at the dinner when Luke brought Joey to his brother’s.

I wasn’t sure of the time frame until we get the scene between Luke and Steve when Luke was stealing his brother’s camera.

I have found Luke to be my favorite character of the show so far. The final line of the episode gave me chills as Luke, because of a twin thing, says that it wasn’t suicide. He could feel it.

It was also very spooky with the bowler hat man following Luke into adulthood, and outside of Hill House. Is it a wonder that Luke became an addict? The scene where the bowler hat man came right up to Luke and it turned into Nellie’s face, leading into the car’s headlights was just amazing. The fact that Luke was so cold and that his legs and arms were stiffening up told us how connected he was to his sister.

I really liked this episode and I felt the most connection to Luke of all of the children so far. His scenes in the Hill House were some of the creepiest of the series so far, with that one where Luke was under the bed being right up there.

I am anxious to see what the show will give us now that Luke knows his twin committed suicide (or did she?).

Sunday Morning Sidewalk #40

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“Touch”

This week as a good episode. The show focused in on Theo, both as a young girl and an adult, dealing with her ability to see visions when she touched someone.

Her mother called it being “sensitive,” but it was clearly a skill that Theo was not happy about. This is the reason behind the gloves Theo would wear.

We see a plot line involving a little girl named Kelsey who came to see Theo professionally. She spoke about “Mr. Smiley” and she seemed to be so close to Theo that Theo had trouble even reading her. This was a hard plot point as it turned out that Mr. Smiley was Kelsey’s foster father and Theo was able to get him arrested. It was a painful set of scenes.

Not quite as powerful or painful as when Theo went to see the body of Nell. Theo gave a pain-filled cry after she laid her hands on the body.

I am still placing characters, but I think this was the best week yet of knowing who was who. McKenna Grace, who played young Theo, did an exceptional job this episode.

Sunday Morning Sidewalk #39

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“Open Casket”

That insect coming out of the mouth of that little dead kitten…. that was horrifying.

The second episode of The Haunting of Hill House was all about death and the after effects for those who were left behind.

Grief is a powerful emotion and this episode really shows the realistic ways people grieve, all mixed with the strange supernatural goings-on surrounding this family.

With Nellie’s suicide being the backdrop of the storytelling, the episode’s focus was on Shirley and her own problems. Shirley insists on preparing Nellie’s body for the funeral, something that everyone around her feels is a bd idea. We get flashbacks to the Hill House when Shirley discovered a group of deserted kittens and tried to help them. However, the kittens were sick and ended up dying (except for the last one, which was taken away by her parents).

We saw several moments when dealing with death, particularly with the idea of an open casket. I have to say that I, personally, hate open caskets. They kept referring to “fixing” the body, but I have never seen an open casket where the body seemed right.

I thought this episode was strong, but I would be lying if I said that the non-linear storytelling isn’t difficult to follow still. I am still trying to understand who is who during these moments. It felt a little better this week, but I know that I was more into the present storyline than I was with the flashbacks because of that.

When that insect crawled out of that kitten’s mouth…. man, that caught me totally off guard.

The Haunting of Hill House is on Netflix.